Kell Brook will fight Diego Chaves on October 24

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Kell Brook will defend his IBF World Welterweight title against Diego Chaves at the Motorpoint Arena in Sheffield on October 24, live on Sky Sports.

Brook makes the third defence of his crown at his hometown fortress after ‘The Special One’ forced mandatory challenger Jo Jo Dan to retire after four rounds of his first defence there in March and then faced Frankie Gavin in his second defence in London in May, ending the Birmingham man’s challenge in the sixth round at The O2.

Brook will be hunting another stoppage win over Chaves, but ‘La Joya’ will be out to spoil the party. The Argentine enters the clash on the back of a split draw with Timothy Bradley having also taken on Brandon Rios and Keith Thurman in his last four fights, and the former interim WBA champion brings a formidable knockout record to trouble the Sheffield star, with 19 of his 23 victims not lasting the pace with the 29 year old.

“Chaves is a rough, tough, durable fighter who is very dangerous,” said Brook. “He’s bringing something new to the table. He’s coming off a draw to Tim Bradley, was ahead on the cards against Brandon Rios until he was disqualified and gave Keith Thurman a solid fight so we know what level he has mixed at and how good he is.

“It’s been a busy year so far boxing Dan in March and Gavin in May – this will be my third defence in seven months but a busy fighter is a happy fighter and I’m very happy at the moment. I’m looking forward to the next challenge and I’m feeling sharp after my break.

“I’ve seen some of Chaves’ quotes and it’s interesting to see he thinks he can walk me down and over-run me. I don’t think some fighters realise how big I am and how sharp and accurate I punch and I’m looking to make a major statement against him. If he does what he promises it’s going to be one hell of a fight.

“I’m so excited about boxing in my home town of Sheffield again. London last time out was a great experience fighting in front of nearly 20,000 but I’m excited to be back there – it is my home. I’m looking to excite like I always do and light up the Motorpoint Arena on October 24.”

“We know Brook is a tough fighter, very technical,” said Chaves. “He is a linear fighter, very frontal. He’s not a fast fighter. He is easily bothered by body punches, and that is one of our strengths. And I believe he has problems going backwards. We saw that in his fight against Shawn Porter. When Porter charged forward, Brook had trouble adjusting to that. But we know that he is a great fighter to face, and we are going to test his punching power too, because the opponents he chose so far have not been such great punchers as the ones I have faced lately.

“I feel that my confidence grows with this challenge, knowing that I will have to face a champion like Kell Brook in his home country in England. This raises the stakes for me, going up there as an Argentine, and as a huge underdog. We know all the bad blood that exists between Argentina and England, and this will give me much more strength. I will be making history if I defeat an Englishman in his own country.”

Not really, Ward for instance is above the opposition he's fought as is every world class boxer.

I'd be careful playing that card HH as Ward has cleared out a division, while Brook continues to fight dross in a division stacked with talent. I'm not sure if he's the worst offender, he's certainly not the only one but his chosen opposition inspires little excitement.

I find it hard to gauge Brook's level, he looks pretty good on the eye but he's close to 30 and has fought a decent level of opponent just once. In that fight he scraped a razor right decision against a one dimensional, straight lines Porter. I'm not sold.

Hammersmith harrier wrote:Not really, Ward for instance is above the opposition he's fought as is every world class boxer.

So we are classifying Kell as a level above mediocre.

Brook is screwed, the only fight Hearn is willing to go all out for at home is Khan. And he seems completely unwilling to let him off the leash stateside. Brook needed to go on the American PBC/ haymon circuit after porter, but Hearn has adopted the warren promotional tactic and brought him back home to milk no mark "world title" fights.

Good luck to ya brook, chances are with the dross your being force fed, you'll become undisciplined and slip up. I don't blame brook, I find it hard to blame fighters, I'm sure legacy means plenty to him, but nothing to his management.

You can't just measure a fighter on his opposition..............

GGG would be mediocre too then..

Mayweather is medicore as well.

Manny,Canelo,Maidana,Cotto etc are bums.

If people are struggling to get a handle on a definition of mediocrity, the debate on this thread is an example of something that falls short of it.

If I introduced the relative merits of joe Louis and Floyd mayweather then the debate would become average for the forum.

I hope that's cleared it all up.

Just confirmed Brook + Fury is ppv. You called it, boys.

But of course it'll be 'cheaper than a night out', so you might as well line the pockets!

Dipper Brown wrote:Just confirmed Brook + Fury is ppv. You called it, boys.

No we didn't. I did. I get little enough credit round here, but on the one occasion I am 100% right way in advance of it being official you look to share the credit round. Set of t()ss pots the lot of you.

To be fair I will get it. Fury vs Wlad could be a dud, but I will watch.

Rowley wrote:

Dipper Brown wrote:Just confirmed Brook + Fury is ppv. You called it, boys.

No we didn't. I did. I get little enough credit round here, but on the one occasion I am 100% right way in advance of it being official you look to share the credit round. Set of t()ss pots the lot of you.

You tell them rowley. It was inspired. I guess that's why you're such a respected mod, and the rest of us are just, well, the rest of us.

I don't ask for much Milky, just don't want to be a Van Gogh type whose genius is not recognised until I have long gone.

Man Sky are really pushing it, what exactly does Sky Sports offer these days?

Really going to have to step up the under card to make it even remotely interesting.

Bet it will be the new price of 19.95, what a rip off

Give Rowley credit and it'll go to his head...

Tricky one because I'd quite like to see Wlad v Fury....But I don't want to give credence to the idea you can stick Brook in with any old fighter and he's PPV...

Ha ha alright Rowley, you called it. Was it naive of me to hope we'd get this for free? I say free, it's not free at all. I seem to notice money being taken out of my account by sky every month and they do claim to broadcast boxing.

SKY is the best value for money around.....Bollox to the boxing.......

Everything a sports fan dreams of.............

Came over in 88 and then moved here in 89................and the TV and especially sport that was on offer then was turdy wurdy......

The Youth of today is spoilt in my opinion..

In 88/89 my favourite sport was jumping into puddles in my wellies!

I won't be buying but I would oddly pay for the Brook fight, I however won't be party to Wlad vs Fury.

The boxing on Sky is pretty sh1te. I wouldnt mind a subscription or a premium for boxing if it garaunteed good quality cards regularly.

But with Matchroom its ppv for ordinary fights and then rest of the coverage consists of generally crap or mediocre cards, loads of pointless mismatches to pad out cards and then loads of weeks with no boxing at all. With the stable they have its difficult to justify.

Fat Dan's just tweeted that box nation has picked up GGG Lemeiux. Shame, I was hoping that sky would pick that one up. They seemed keen on Golovkin but maybe that was due to him sniffing around Froch.

Dipper Brown wrote:In 88/89 my favourite sport was jumping into puddles in my wellies!

... Until your wife pointed out that it was odd behaviour for a 26 year-old.

True.